The Red Team (Rewritten)
by floydcotton
Summary: This is a rewrite of my original story of the same name. During season 1 of Endurance, the girl on the Red Team is Kiley, not Ashley. She falls in love with her partner, Christian.
1. Audition of a Lifetime

**This is a re-write of my original story that went by the same name. I re-read the story and noticed a lot of problems that needed to be fixed. I am going to delete the original story once I get everything fixed. I really appreciate hearing from my readers, so any reviews are welcome. This is a story based on season 1 of the Discovery Kids' TV show, Endurance. It takes place in the summer of 2002 and was filmed on Catalina Island, California. I am replacing Ashley Gudzak from the Red Team with Kiley Lyon, an OC. I'll put a picture of her up on my account. Also, if you have never watched the show, I'll put a link for the first episode up on my account as well. I'm also making Kiley into a champion surfer, even though I know very little about surfing. I'm trying to learn some stuff about it off the Internet and from surfing friends of mine, but I apologize to any surfers reading my story who might get offended at my lack of surfing knowledge. I am the farthest thing from a surfing expert and will never pretend to be one. If anyone notices any mistakes I make relating to surfing, please let me know and I'll try to fix it. Thanks, and sorry again for any surfing-related mistakes. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC. **

**Chapter One: Audition of a Lifetime**

Kiley Lyon was 14 years old when she heard about Endurance for the first time. It was the first week of summer break in June, 2002. She had just arrived at the Pier, a beach in her hometown of San Clemente, California, to surf with her cousin and her friend when she saw a flier posted on a bulletin board about auditions for a new TV show called _Endurance_.

"Hey guys, have you ever heard of this before?" Kiley called out to the other two.

They came up to the bulletin board and read the flier, then shook their heads.

"No," said Kiley's friend Taylor, "What is this thing, a new kind of Survivor or something?"

"Looks like it," replied Kiley, "It says it's a competition for teenagers to see who has the most endurance to make it through the game."

"It looks cool," said Mike, who was Kiley's cousin, "We should give it a shot."

"What, you mean we should audition?" Kiley asked skeptically, "Like, actually try to get on the show? What are the odds that any one of us will actually get picked? I mean, there are probably thousands of kids our age auditioning, there is no way that any of us will ever get on this show."

"You never know, Ki," Mike replied, using her childhood nickname, "I mean, all three of us have surfed ever since we were little kids and have won tons of competitions. Surfing's a tough sport and if we can survive that, then we can survive a TV show. Anyway, if this is a physical competition, don't you think they'll be picking athletic kids? We're athletes, we could have a shot!"

"Especially you, Kiley," Taylor added, "You're the best surfer out of the three of us."

"Just because I've won a few more competitions than you two doesn't mean that I'm the best. Neither of you even competed against me when I won some of them!" Kiley protested.

"Oh, come on, Ki!" Taylor pleaded, "Please, please, please! It won't be any fun if you don't audition too!"

"Yeah, Kiley," Mike added, "It wouldn't be any fun if we auditioned without you. Come on, let's just do it for fun. It doesn't matter if we get chosen or not; won't it be cool to start high school in a few months and be able to tell people that we auditioned for a TV show? Besides, if you don't audition, then you definitely won't get picked. At least you'll have a shot if you actually try."

Kiley sighed heavily in mock frustration before saying, "Fine, if it gets you two to stop nagging me about it, I'll do it. God knows that if I don't, neither of you will let me forget it."

Taylor and Mike cheered as Kiley turned and started walking to the bathrooms to change. The two ran to catch up with her.

"The sign said to send in a tape," Mike said, "Do you think your mom will film them for us, Kiley?"

Kiley's mom was a professional camera operator for the local news station and had a lot of cameras and other kinds of equipment stored at their house. Kiley considered it: If her mom filmed their audition tapes, they would look professional and might just give the three of them an edge over the other kids, who would probably be using hand held camcorders.

"Probably," Kiley replied, "She always films our competitions, so she'll probably be willing to film our tapes for us. But what would we do in the tapes? We probably shouldn't just say that we want on the show, we would need to give them a good reason to pick us."

"We could do something with surfing," Taylor suggested, "We're all great at surfing, that might give us a good chance. Plus, I'm sure not many of the other kids auditioning will do anything like it. Like you said, your mom's always filming our competitions, so she'll know how to make us look even better on tape."

The three of them agreed that they should each do something with surfing, just as long as they did different stunts. It might not look good if they all did the exact same thing on their audition tapes. As they came out of the bathrooms and started walking towards the beach, they noticed another group of surfers (all boys) about 50 yards away who looked to be about their age. Kiley vaguely recognized one of them from a competition she had just been at.

"Who are they?" Taylor asked, who quickly became very interested in these good looking boys.

"I only know the blonde guy in the red swimming trunks," Kiley replied, "His name is Christian, but I don't know his last name. He's been at some of the same competitions as me. He's really good, he's number one in his age group."

"Is he from around here?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, I think he is," Kiley replied, "He went to different schools than us, but he'll probably be going to school with us next year if he doesn't move or something."

"He's kinda cute, don't you think?" Taylor asked with a smirk.

"Oh, please," Mike groaned before Kiley could respond, "No talking about guys while I'm around. I knew I should have asked David to come today so that I could have someone to talk to while the two of you drooled over guys."

"Now you know how I felt the other day when you and David were talking about that one girl in the blue bikini," Taylor retorted, "It was nauseating."

As the two continued bickering, Kiley couldn't help herself; she glanced down the beach at Christian, who was heading into the water with his friends. After a few seconds, as if he felt someone watching him, he turned and made eye contact with her. Christian held her gaze for a few seconds before smiling and waving at her, which she gladly returned. Taylor was right, she decided, he was kinda cute.

That night when she got home, Kiley told her mom about the auditions. She told her that Mike and Taylor had pretty much forced her into agreeing to audition and now there was no way for her to back out.

"Honey, I'm sure it'll be something fun for you three to do before the summer's over," her mom reassured her, "You never know until you try. Who knows, you might have a shot. I'd love to shoot the tapes for you; just let me know when and where, I'll be there."

A few days later, Kiley was back at the Pier with her mom, Mike, and Taylor to film their audition tapes. They decided to let Mike go first as he was the only guy, with Taylor going second and Kiley going last. All three of them started off their tapes by introducing themselves and explaining what they were going to do before heading out in the water to surf. Each tape lasted about 10 minutes long.

"That was so awesome!" Mike exclaimed as they finished the last tape, "Thanks for helping us, Aunt Angie."

"It's no problem, kids," she replied, "I'm glad you all had fun. I hope that the people doing the casting for this show sees how talented you are and picks at least one of you. But you do need to consider the fact that not all three of you could get picked. One or two of you might get left out and you need to prepare yourselves for that."

"She's right," Kiley said as her mom walked back to the car, "What if only one of us gets picked? Or what if two of us get picked and the other one gets left out?"

"It'll be no big deal," Taylor said, "At least one or two of us would get to go."

Kiley hoped more than anything that Taylor was right. She would hate for her friendship with these two to get ruined just because of a stupid TV show. Now all they could do was mail in their tapes and wait for the call to come.


	2. On the Show

**Just so everyone knows, I'm making it so Kiley turns 15 the July before her freshman year of high school. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Two: On the Show**

It was now the last week of June and only three weeks before Kiley's 15th birthday. It had been two weeks since the three friends had sent in their audition tapes for_ Endurance_ and they still hadn't heard anything. They had almost given up hope that any of them would get the call saying they would be on the show.

Kiley had just gotten back home with her family after a weekend camping trip and was unpacking in her room when her mom called her into the kitchen.

"Honey, there's a message on the phone for you," her mom said with a big smile on her face.

"Who's it from?" Kiley asked, curious about what her mom was smiling about.

"Just listen," her mom replied, handing her the phone.

Kiley listened to the message and was stunned at what she heard. It was a man named JD Roth, who identified himself as the show's creator/producer/host, telling her that she was one of 40 semi-finalists who might get to be on the show. He went on to say that they were trying to cut it down to 20 kids, so she had a 50/50 chance of being one of those 20. He gave her a number at the end for her to call back and confirm that she had received the message.

Oh my God, she thought, I actually made it to being one of 40 kids out of thousands who had a chance of being on the show!

She started screaming and jumping up and down with joy. She was so excited that she accidentally deleted the message before realizing that she hadn't written down the number at the end that she needed to call back. As Kiley began to panic, her mom reassured her.

"I wrote it down for you already," she laughed, "Hurry and call them back, and then you can call and tell your friends."

Kiley quickly called the number back and a producer from the show answered the phone. After confirming that she had received their message, she hung up and sat down at the kitchen table. She was trying to take it all in; she had never expected that she would ever have even the slightest chance to be on any kind of a TV show.

Mike and Taylor were the first two people that Kiley called. She hoped that at least one of them had gotten the same call.

"Hello?" Taylor's voice came over the phone.

"Taylor! Guess who called and left me a message while I was gone this weekend?" Kiley asked excitedly.

"I don't know, who?" Taylor asked.

"The host/producer guy of _Endurance_! He called this weekend to tell me that I'm in the top 40 to be on the show! I actually have a chance of being on the show!" Kiley almost screamed into the phone, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Really?" Taylor's voice perked up, "Oh my God, that's awesome! When do you find out if you made it?"

"By the end of the week," Kiley said excitedly, "At least that's what the producer said when I called them back. Did they call you, too?"

"No," Taylor said with a hint of disappointment, "Looks like I didn't get picked at all."

"Really?" Kiley asked sadly, "Man, I was hoping that you would get picked, too. Do you know if Mike got called?"

"I don't know," Taylor replied, "He didn't tell me if he had or not."

"Well, I'll call and ask him," Kiley said, "I'm really sorry that you didn't get picked."

"That's okay," Taylor said reassuringly, "I'm just happy at least one of us got picked. Call me back and let me know what Mike says."

"Will do," Kiley replied before hanging up and dialing Mike's number.

"Hello?" Mike's mom said as she answered the phone.

"Hey, Auntie Kay," Kiley said, "Is Mike there?"

"He sure is, sweetheart," Kay replied, "Let me go get him real quick."

After a few moments, Mike came to the phone, "Hey Kiley, how was your trip?"

"It was great," Kiley said, "But not as great as what was waiting for me when I came back."

"Why, what happened?" Mike asked.

"There was a message on the phone saying that I'm one of 40 kids who have a chance to be on _Endurance_!" she told him.

"Really? Oh my God, wow!" Mike exclaimed, "I can't believe it, you actually have a shot of being on the show!"

"Did you get a call, too?" Kiley asked hopefully.

"No, I didn't," he said sadly, "But that's ok, at least you got picked."

"Taylor didn't get picked, either," she told him, "I called her just before I called you."

"Man, that sucks," Mike replied, "Well, it looks like you'll be doing this alone if you manage to get on the show."

"Yeah," Kiley said, "I was hoping at least one of you would get picked, too. Well, I should call Taylor back. I told her I would let her know if you got picked as well."

"Alright," Mike said, "Congratulations, Kiley. It's great that you have a shot at this."

"Thanks," Kiley said gratefully before hanging up.

So it was not to be: neither one of them had been told that they were in the top 40. This soured Kiley's mood a bit as she would have never even auditioned for the show if it hadn't been for their prodding. Even though she knew that her cousin and her friend had no hard feelings towards her, Kiley couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. She knew they had both wanted to be on the show, but now they wouldn't be able to.

It was a week later when Kiley was woken up early by her mother. Like any other teenager during summer break, Kiley was not happy about being woken up early.

"What?" she groaned, wanting desperately to roll over and go back to sleep.

"Wake up, Ki, there's someone on the phone for you," her mom replied gently.

"Tell them to call back in a couple of hours," Kiley mumbled into her pillow.

"Trust me, honey; you don't want them to call you back in a couple of hours. You'll want to take this call right now, it's important," her mom replied with laughter in her voice.

"Fine," Kiley said irritably before taking the phone and snapping, "There better be a good reason why you're calling me at 7:30 in the morning in July when all normal people should still be in bed."

"Hey, Kiley, this is JD Roth," the voice on the other end of the phone said with a laugh, "Don't worry, I have a great reason to be calling you so early."

"Oh my God, I am so sorry!" Kiley said quickly, now fully awake and completely horrified by what she had said, "I thought you were one of my friends or something, I didn't realize it was you!"

"That's ok, I'm sure I'll be getting that quite a bit for the nes few hours," JD replied, "I just wanted to let you know that you have been picked as one of the 20 kids to be on Season 1 of Endurance."

"Really! Are you serious?" Kiley all but yelled in excitement.

"Really, I'm serious," JD laughed. "In two and a half weeks, you will be coming to Catalina Island off the coast of California to be on the show."

Kiley couldn't believe it; she'd actually made it on the show! Out of thousands of kids, she was one of twenty kids who would get to have an experience of a lifetime! JD told her that all of the information she would need would be in the mail within the next two days. After hanging up, Kiley threw the phone on her bed and ran into her parents' room.

"I made it on the show!" she screamed as she jumped onto their bed.

"That's great, honey," her dad said with a smile, "When does it start?"

"On July 20th," Kiley replied excitedly, "JD, the host of the show who just called, said that it was gonna be on Catalina Island, so it won't be too far from here. Imagine if it was taking place in Florida or something, it would take forever to get there. JD said that more information should be coming in the mail in the next couple days. By the way, thanks, Mom. It's probably because of the audition tape you shot that got me on the show."

"It's really no problem, sweetheart, it was just as much fun for me as it was for you and your friends. I'm just glad that you get to experience this," her mom said with a big smile on her face.

"I have to call Mike and Taylor," Kiley said, "They're gonna flip when I tell them!"

She ran back into her room and grabbed the phone. She knew they would kill her for waking them up this early in the morning, but she didn't care.

"What?" Taylor's irritable voice said over the phone.

"Meet me at the Pier at noon," Kiley said and hung up before Taylor could say anything.

She quickly dialed Mike's number and got the same reaction from her cousin. She told him the same thing she had told Taylor and quickly hung up. It seemed like the best idea to hang up before either of them could get mad at her for waking them up.

A few hours later, Kiley met Mike and Taylor down at the Pier to tell them the news. As she saw the two of them approaching, she couldn't help but smile and jump up and down in her excitement. The thought that she hadn't even wanted to audition for the show in the first place almost made her laugh.

"Guess what, guess what, guess what!" Kiley gushed, barely containing her excitement.

"Hmmm, I have no idea what she could be talking about," Mike said in a mock thoughtful voice, "What do you think, Taylor?"

"I don't know, Mike," Taylor replied, pretending to be just as puzzled, "Do you think something exciting happened?"

"No, I don't think so," Mike said in a serious tone, "Nothing exciting ever happens to the three of us."

"Unless, of course," Taylor said with a smile starting to take over her face, "Your darling cousin happened to get a certain phone call informing her that she has been selected to participate in a certain television show."

Kiley confirmed their guess by jumping up and down, almost screaming with happiness. Mike and Taylor joined in, happy for her even though they hadn't been chosen alongside her. One of them had made it on the show, which was better than any of them could have hoped for.


	3. The First Day

**I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Three: The First Day**

Two and a half weeks after receiving that life-changing phone call, Kiley was now 15 years old. She had celebrated her birthday on July 17th, which was the best birthday of her life. All of her family and friends threw her a party to not only to celebrate her birthday, but also to celebrate her acceptance onto the show. She had received a packet in the mail containing her travel information and a list of things she would need to pack. The items on the list were:

Blanket

Pillow

Tennis shoes

Flip flops

Two pairs of shorts

Two pairs of pants

Two tank tops

One sweatshirt

Three t-shirts

Two pairs of pajamas

Seven pairs of socks & underwear

Swim suit

Three towels

Three washcloths

Soap

Shampoo and conditioner

Razor

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Deodorant

Hairdryer

Brush

Hair ties

Hand lotion

Sunscreen

Chapstick

Bug spray

Journal and pens

Camera

Flashlight

Sunglasses

Kleenex

Watch

Gum

Playing cards and/or other small games to play

When she read the list, Kiley couldn't believe how long it was. She hadn't considered just how much she would need while she was gone, but it made sense once she thought about it. If she managed to stay on the show for the entire time, she would be there for nearly three weeks; this meant she would need a lot of stuff.

As she was only 15, one of her parents would need to travel with her for legal reasons. They decided that her mother would be the one to travel with her since she was able to get the at least three weeks off of work on such short notice. While Kiley would be staying on a secluded beach, her mother would be staying in a hotel with the rest of the parents.

On the morning of Saturday, July 20th, it was finally time for Kiley to go to Catalina Island. Her dad was going to take her and her mom to Dana Point, where Kiley would get on a boat with the rest of the kids and her mom would get on another boat with the rest of the parents. The day before, Kiley had spent hours packing her bags with everything she needed. In addition to all of her clothes and toiletries, she packed Uno, Phase 10, and SkipBo, which were her favorite card games.

At 9 o'clock, Kiley and her parents loaded up the car, said goodbye to everyone who had come to see them leave, and then set off down the road. Her father would be dropping them off at the terminal and then pick them up when they came back. Even though it was only a ten-minute drive from San Clemente to Dana Point, Kiley felt like hours had passed before they arrived at the terminal. Kiley's mother noticed how anxious she was and started laughing.

"Sweetheart, relax," she laughed, "We'll be there in a few minutes. Just think about all of the people who have to travel all the way across the country. We're lucky that it's not that far from home."

"I know, Mom," Kiley sighed as she tried to relax, "I just didn't realize how much I actually wanted to be on the show until this morning. I guess I'm just anxious to get there and get started."

"I can't wait to get there, either," Mrs. Lyon said, "It'll be nice to be able to relax for a while and not have to worry about work."

"You do realize that your time on Catalina Island is totally dependent on how well I do in the game, right?" Kiley joked, "What if I get kicked off right away? If yo that hppens,u'll have to go right back to work."

"Oh, don't worry," Mrs. Lyon reassured her with a sly smile, "I'll get three weeks off no matter what; I might just stay there after you leave."

"You wouldn't!" Kiley gasped, slightly horrified.

Both of her parents burst out laughing before her mother said, "Of course I wouldn't! I'd come back with you and just have a stay-cation at home."

"Good," Kiley said before joking again, "I wouldn't want you to have any fun on vacation."

"Of course not," Mrs. Lyon agreed with a smile, "It should be against the law for me to have fun on vacation."

"What'll you do at home all by yourself, Dad?" Kiley asked her father.

"All of the fun things that should be illegal for a parent to do when they finally get rid of their kids," Mr. Lyon said with a grin.

"Dad!" Kiley laughed, "You are so weird!"

"Don't I know it," he chuckled, "Well, here we are!"

As they pulled into ferry terminal parking lot, Kiley was practically shaking with excitement. She couldn't believe that she was here; she was actually going to be on a TV show and compete against 19 other kids for a grand prize! After they unloaded all of their bags, the time came to say goodbye to her father.

"Bye, Dad," Kiley said as she hugged her father.

"Bye, honey," Mr. Lyon replied, "Have fun and do your best."

"I will," she said softly as her father turned to hug her mother goodbye.

Kiley and her mother waved goodbye to Mr. Lyon as he pulled out of the parking lot. When they started walking towards the terminal, Kiley caught a glimpse of a man and a teenage boy walking just a few yards away from them. It took Kiley a few seconds to realize that she knew the boy: He was Christian, the boy from the beach who Taylor thought was cute.

"Hey, Mom, I know that boy over there!" she exclaimed, "He lives in San Clemente like us!"

"Really?" Mrs. Lyon asked in surprise as she looked across the parking lot, "Do you think he could be here for the show as well? What are the odds that they pick two kids from the same town?"

"I don't know," Kiley responded, "But I can see why they would choose him, he's a great surfer from what I've seen at the beach."

When Kiley and her mom entered the terminal, they were told by a producer that they had to split up and get ready to get on the boats. Kiley suddenly became very nervous; this could be the last time she saw her mother for the next three weeks. Just as she had earlier, her mother noticed her discomfort.

"Ki, you'll be fine. I know you'll do great and I won't be too far away just in case something happens. Don't worry, just have fun and do your best," she said in a comforting voice.

"I know Mom, I'm just kinda nervous about being away from you and Dad for so long," Kiley replied, "Even when I went away for competitions, I always had either you or Dad there with me."

"Like I said, you'll do great," her mom said confidently, "If you try your best, everything will work out fine."

"Thanks, Mom," Kiley said as she hugged her, "Don't get too wild and crazy with the other parents when you're at the hotel. Remember, you're a mom, you're not supposed to have too much fun."

"Of course," she laughed, "I don't want to break that unofficial rule that parents can't fun on vacation!"

The two of them laughed before hugging one last time and saying goodbye. Kiley took a deep breath and walked over to the group of teenagers who were standing off to the side.

"Hello, everyone!" Kiley said enthusiastically, trying to be friendly.

"Hi!" replied the group as a whole, matching her enthusiasm.

"I'm Kiley Lyon, what are your names?" she asked.

They went around the group and introduced themselves. Kiley already knew Christian, whose last name turned out to be Justice, and everyone else's names were Max DeLeo, Brandon Hendrix, Skyler Russell, Trevor Wilkins, Jon Crocilla, Aaron Thornburg, Jenna Jimenez, Layla Brisco, Chelsea Meyers, Lana Neiman, Sabrina Lloyd, Jonna Mannion, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, Ron Neurauter, Shane Peltzman, Cree Howard, Heather Ichihashi, and Lacey Elick. It seemed as though Kiley and Christian, who had arrived at the same time, were the last to arrive at the terminal.

After introducing themselves to each other, the teenagers broke off into separate conversations and started getting to know each other; Kiley found herself quickly becoming friends with Sabrina.

"Hi, I'm Sabrina," she said, "You're Kiley, right?"

"Yeah, I'm Kiley," Kiley confirmed, "Where are you from?"

"Sugarland, Texas," Sabrina said, "What about you?"

"San Clemente, California," Kiley replied, "It's only, like, ten minutes from here."

"Lucky you," Sabrina laughed, "My mom and I had to fly in yesterday. It took us forever to get here."

"Man, that sucks," Kiley chuckled, "My mom and I left home about 20 minutes ago, I couldn't imagine having to travel from so far away. What's it like living in Texas?"

As the two girls continued getting to know each other, Christian came and joined them.

"Hey, you're that girl I saw on the beach back home in San Clemente a few weeks ago, right?" he asked Kiley.

"Yeah, I'm from San Clemente. I remember you, you're the guy who's been winning all those surfing competitions, aren't you?" Kiley asked.

"Yeah, I am," Christian replied, "I knew I recognized you, we've competed against each other before."

Kiley laughed and replied, "Yeah, we've been in a few of the same competitions. Unfortunately for me, you've always seemed to come out the winner."

Christian then turned to Sabrina and said, "Hi, I'm Christian."

"I'm Sabrina," she replied, "Nice to meet you."

Before Christian could reply, a producer came up to them and told the teens that they needed them to do some introductory voice-recording for the opening shot of the show. All they needed to do was say who they were, how old they were, and where they were from. If they wanted, they could also add a little bit about what their strategy for the game would be.

When it was Kiley's turn, all she said was, "My name is Kiley Lyon, I'm 15, and I'm from San Clemente, California." She didn't want to say anything about strategy because in all honesty, she didn't really have a strategy yet.

After all 20 of the teenagers did their introductions, it was time for them to load onto the boat. It wasn't a ferry, which Kiley had expected, but a large sail boat. Kiley stuck close to Sabrina and Christian, and they were soon joined by Jon, who was from Chicago.

"So you two are from the same town?" Jon asked.

"Yeah," Christian replied, "We're both from San Clemente, but this is the first time we've ever really met."

"How could you not have met before?" Sabrina asked with a laugh.

"Cuz we went to different schools," Kiley told her, "We just never had the chance to meet each other, I guess."

"So what's Chicago like?" Christian asked Jon.

As Jon started to telling them about Chicago, one of the producers interrupted them.

"We're going to get some shots of you guys for the opening scene of the show," he told them, "So no talking and absolutely no looking in the cameras, that's the number one rule of reality television. Just look out at the ocean or something."

Kiley felt awkward just standing at the side of the boat next to Sabrina, Jon, and Christian while a few cameras were focused on them. Thankfully, the cameras were shut off after just a few minutes of shooting and they could all go back to normal.

"Well, that was different," Jon laughed, "I guess we'll have to get used to having cameras being pointed at us, right?"

"Yeah," Christian replied, "It'll be hard to remember to not look into the camera."

Suddenly, they heard the noise of someone getting sick on the other side of the boat. Everyone looked and saw that a small, thin boy with glasses named Skyler was leaning over the side of the boat, throwing up into the ocean.

"Do you think he's alright?" Jon asked, concerned and mildly disgusted at the sight of someone getting sick.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Kiley replied, looking at Skyler sympathetically, "He's probably just seasick."

"Man, that sucks," Christian winced, "I'm glad that I pretty much grew up in the water, I would hate getting seasick."

"My friend Mackenzie from school got carsick once," Sabrina said with a shudder, "We went on a trip to the zoo in fifth grade for a field trip and she got sick on the bus. It was really gross, she threw up all over the seat."

"My friend Taylor gets carsick all the time," Kiley said, "She hates going on road trips, she always gets sick."

"Okay, let's talk about something else besides people getting sick," Jon laughed, "We don't want that kid to hear us and think we're making fun of him. Besides, it's really disgusting."

It took them about an hour to sail to Catalina Island, during which time Skyler unfortunately got sick two more times. They were all talking, laughing, and just having fun getting to know each other. Before they knew it, they had arrived. The boat pulled into the harbor and they started gathering their bags. However, one of the producers stopped them.

"You can leave your bags on the boat for now," he said, "There's going to be a short introduction on the beach with the show's host, JD, then you can come back and get your things. For right now, just walk down the beach. JD's waiting for you. The cameras will be on you the whole way, so what's the number one rule of reality television?"

"Never look at the camera," the teens chorused while laughing.

"Absolutely right," the producer chuckled, "Now go meet JD before he thinks you stood him up!"

The teens climbed off the boat and onto the sand. Sure enough, there were several cameras focused on the group as they started walking down the beach. It was hard for Kiley (and she assumed it was hard for the others as well) to not look at the cameras, as the camera crew were ahead of them.

How can I not look at the cameras, Kiley thought, when I'm walking right at them?

After they walked for a few minutes, a man came into view. He was a smaller man who looked to be in his forties with light brown hair. The group came to a stop in front of him, and the cameras remained focused on them.

"Hey, everybody," the man greeted, "Welcome to Endurance. I'm JD Roth. All 20 of you have been selected from around the country to see if you have what it takes. The two who demonstrate true endurance will make it to the end and win the adventure of a lifetime. What exactly does that mean? Well, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Maybe a trip to Australia to hang out with the kangaroos? No problem. Search for the lost cities of the Amazon? Done. If you wanna go to Africa and go on a safari, we will make your wildest dreams come true. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?"

All of the teenagers nodded in agreement; they all liked this idea of being able to go on a trip if they won the show. Kiley was curious, however, because JD said that two of them would win and be able to go on this trip. Would they be partnering up and competing as a team? If so, who would be partnered with whom?

"Yeah," they all said together.

"Yeah, don't pack your bags yet," JD replied, "There's a long road ahead. The challenges we're gonna put you through could very well change your life. You ready to take a look around?"

Everyone nodded, anxious to see where they would be staying.

"Alright, follow me," JD said, and they all started walking up the beach.

As they approached two small huts, JD instructed that the boys stand in front of the hut on the left and the girls stand in front of the hut on the right.

"So, this is where you're gonna be living," JD explained, "Not as comfortable as home, but at least you got a roof over your head and a bed to sleep on."

It may not be as comfortable as home, Kiley thought, but it looks awesome! I can't believe that we get to stay in these cool huts! I wonder what they look like on the inside.

Then JD turned and asked, "Jenna, do you like surprises?"

Jenna hesitated for a second before letting out shaky laugh and an unsure, "Yeah."

JD smiled and replied, "Good, cause on Endurance Island, there's gonna be plenty of surprises; and these living quarters right here, they're no exception. But we'll get to that a little later. Should we show you a little more?"

Everyone nodded and said yes. They followed JD down the beach and stood in front of seven wooden poles with colored cloth wrapped around the top of each one: grey, yellow, red, purple, blue, orange, and green. Each pole was painted to match the cloth that was wrapped around it. Next to the poles was a long wooden board that had 10 triangular pieces on it.

"Standing before you are the Pyramids of Endurance. Take a look, because each of these ten pieces contains a quality needed to survive this game. There's Luck, Trust, Leadership, Perseverance, Discipline, Heart, Knowledge, Strength, Courage, and Commitment. The first team to collect all ten pieces wins the game."

So that's how two people will win the game, Kiley thought, we're gonna partner up. If I have to have a boy as a partner, I want Christian or Jon. If gender doesn't matter, I want to have Sabrina as a partner. I hope we get to choose who we want as a partner.

"Sounds simple, right?" JD asked.

"Yeah," everyone laughed.

"Not really," JD said to the groans and laughter of the teenagers, "There are two types of missions: Endurance Missions and Temple Missions. Endurance Missions are always for pieces of the pyramid. Temple Missions decide who stays on the Island and who goes."

Everyone groaned again, already dreading the Temple Missions. None of them wanted to leave; they had all wanted to get here so badly.

"Just take a look behind you, way up over there," JD pointed and everyone turned to see a building on top of a hill behind them.

"That's the Temple of Fate," JD continued, "This is the place where the game is either won or lost. The winner of the Temple Mission will get to select any two teams they want to send up to the Temple. Two teams will go up there, only one will return. So be careful who you send, because one team's coming back. Remember when I told you there would be surprises around every corner?"

"Yeah," everyone replied nervously.

"Those living quarters over there," JD said, "They only have enough room for seven guys and seven girls. That means six of you will be going home today."

They all gasped and looked at each other in shock. Kiley and Sabrina looked at each other, their eyes getting big. What did he mean that six of them would be going home today?

"We only promised you'd get here, we didn't say anything about you staying," JD continued, "Right now I want you to take some time to get to know one another. I'm gonna see you all a little bit later for your first test on Endurance; or will it be your last? Have a good afternoon, I'll see you guys later."

As he walked away, the producer from before came up to them.

"Ok, kids," he said, "The cameras are gonna be off for a few minutes while you go get your bags off of the boat. They'll be back on when you come back so we can get a bit of footage of you before the mission. Just act natural when they're on, we want to see you having fun. Is everyone okay with that?"

"Yeah," they replied.

"Good," the producer smiled, "Go get your stuff real quick and then go check out the huts!"

The group of teenagers headed back to the boat to grab their bags before walking into the cabins; they were talking and laughing nervously, none of them wanted to go home yet. Kiley decided not to think about the fact that she could be going home in a few hours, she just wanted to spend time with the other kids and have fun.

They all raced back to their cabins and ran inside. When the girls went into their hut, they started choosing which bed they wanted. There were several bunk beds and one bed that wasn't a bunk bed. Kiley, who had never had a reason to sleep on a bunk bed, had always wanted a top bunk, so she threw her bag onto a top bunk and climbed up.

"Sabrina, get the top bunk right next to mine," Kiley called to her new friend.

Sabrina climbed up to the bunk right next to Kiley's and threw her bag onto it. The beds, they discovered, weren't beds in the traditional sense. Instead of nice, comfortable mattresses, there were wooden boards to sleep on. Kiley really wasn't looking forward to sleeping on that uncomfortable looking board. Cree climbed up onto Kiley's bunk and sat next to her.

"Hey Kiley, are you good at doing hair?" Cree asked.

"I guess so," Kiley responded, "I do my friends' hair for them all the time."

"Could you do my hair for me?" Cree asked, "I've never been very good at it."

"Sure," Kiley replied, "How do you want it done?"

"I want the front part of it braded in rows and then the rest of it pulled back in a bun," Cree told her.

The girls spent the next half an hour getting to know each other in their cabin. Everyone was talking and laughing and having fun; Jonna even jokingly suggested that they should meditate to prepare for the task. They had a group hug with Jenna insisting to be in the middle. All the while, the cameras were following them around, capturing their actions and conversations.

All of the girls were talking loudly and really fast, which was noted by the quietest girl in the group named Chelsea. Kiley was the only one who noticed, as everyone else just kept on talking. They were sharing stories about where they were from and what their hobbies were.

"Do you guys want to come out and play football with us?" Brandon asked as he stuck his head into the cabin.

"Yes!" the girls cheered as they jumped off of their bunks and rushed outside.

Jonna and Christian were chosen as the team captains and the two picked their teams. Kiley was on Christian's team, as was Jon; Sabrina, however was on Jonna's team. The only two people who didn't join in the game were Skyler and Chelsea. Kiley and the others didn't know if they were just naturally quiet or if they were each working out a strategy. Kiley suspected that Chelsea was just naturally shy and quiet, but she had a feeling that Skyler was thinking out some sort of a strategy by just observing everyone else. It seemed like it might be a good idea, except for the fact that he wasn't really making any friends.

Football was fun, even though most of them weren't really good at it. Jon and Brandon were the best, but that was because they had grown up playing it. Trevor was pretty good, too, despite being one of the smallest boys there.

"Hey Sabrina, let's go over and talk to Chelsea," Kiley said when she noticed that Chelsea was sitting all alone on the cabin steps.

Lana came with them and they tried to persuade Chelsea to come play football with them.

"Come play football with us," Sabrina said.

"No thanks, I'm not really good at football," Chelsea replied.

"Let's just sit here and make rock people," Kiley suggested.

The four girls sat on the steps making faces out of rocks and talked for a while. Chelsea finally started opening up a bit, but she was still really quiet.

"Do you know who you want as a partner yet, Chelsea?" Kiley asked, trying to make conversation and help Chelsea feel like she belonged.

"Not really," Chelsea said, "I haven't really thought about it. I'm just worried about getting through the first mission."

"Same here," said Sabrina, "It would suck to go home on the first day. I waited so long to get here that I couldn't imagine going home on the first day!"

"Do you guys have any idea of who you want as a partner?" Lana asked.

"Christian or Jon, probably," Kiley replied, "I've talked the most with them and know them the best out of all of the guys."

"Me too," Sabrina said.

"What about you, Lana?" Kiley asked.

"I'm not sure," Lana shrugged, "I just know I don't want Trevor or Skyler as a partner. They seem to be the weakest ones."

The other girls nodded. After talking with Lana and Chelsea for a little while longer, Sabrina leaned over to Kiley.

"Hey, let's go talk with Jon and Christian," she said quietly.

"Ok," Kiley replied as she looked up to see where the two boys were.

After they approached Jon and Christian, the four of them stood a ways away from the rest of the players to talk privately.

"So what do you guys think about this whole partner thing?" Kiley asked.

"You mean, who do we want as partners?" Jon asked.

"Yeah, if you could have anyone as a partner, who would it be?" Sabrina answered.

"I think it would be cool if the four of us partnered up," Christian said, "Maybe Jon and I could be partners with the two of you."

"That'd be awesome," Kiley replied, "Especially since we're already friends. But who would partners out of the four of us?"

"Maybe Jon and I could be partners and you and Christian could be partners," Sabrina suggested, "Those are the two pairs that would probably work the best together."

"Yeah, that would be cool," Jon said, with Christian and Kiley nodding in agreement, "And our two teams can be in an alliance or something like that. We would keep each other safe from the Temple."

"But do you guys think we'll be able to choose our own teams?" Christian asked.

"How else would we be put into teams?" Sabrina asked.

"I don't know, maybe they would choose for us," Christian replied, "Like, maybe do it randomly."

"Don't worry," Kiley reassured him, "They'll probably let us choose. They probably know that we'd be upset if we don't get to choose who we want. So are we all cool with the plan to be in an alliance with each other?"

The four of them agreed on this plan; the only thing they could see standing in the way of it was the mission that afternoon. They were closest with each other and couldn't imagine what they would do if one of the four of them went home that day.

As they went back to the group, they noticed that a lot of the others had gone into the boys' hut. When the four of them entered, they were greeted by a mess. Clothes, shoes, toiletries, towels, and more were everywhere.

"Whose stuff is this?" Kiley asked in amazement. She had no idea how the boys' hut could be so messy so soon after their arrival.

"It's Jon's stuff," Alejandro replied with a laugh, "He unpacked his bags before we played football."

"Geez, Jon!" Kiley exclaimed, "How and why did you make so much of a mess already? We've only been here a few hours and we're not even guaranteed to stay the night! What if you have to leave tonight?"

"I guess I'm just a messy person," Jon replied sheepishly.

Kiley just shook her head in disbelief, still amazed that one person could have caused this much of a mess in such a short amount of time. Soon, the producer returned with some news for them.

"Hey, everyone!" he said cheerfully, "We need to make some announcements. First, we would like to start doing some one-on-one interviews with you on the beach. Second, we would like to introduce you to the confessional booth. It's located right next to the bathrooms. It's just a small booth with a small camera in it. Whenever you want, you can go into the confessional booth and talk to the camera about your thoughts. You can talk about the game, other players, life on the island, and whatever else you want to talk about."

During the course of the next few hours, they were all pulled aside for interviews on the beach or on the rocks. When she did her confessional in the booth, Kiley confessed that she felt bad for Chelsea.

"I just feel bad for her," Kiley revealed, "because I don't think she really got a chance to meet everyone else and talk with them. Chelsea just seems so quiet. But she seems like she's a nice person."

After their interviews and confessionals, the group was instructed to head down to the water for their mission. As they approached the water, Kiley saw a huge metal structure about 50 yards out in the water.

"How's it going, everybody?" JD asked.

"Good," they all replied, even though they were all incredibly nervous about the game they were about to play.

"It looks like some of you have become very fast friends and I'm sure it's gonna be hard to say goodbye to six of your friends, isn't it?" he asked, to which everyone agreed.

"Now it's time to find out who's going home," JD continued, "Each week on Endurance, challenges are going to be borrowed from a specific event or person in history; and today, we're gonna mark your first moment in our history with our giant timeline. You're gonna grab hold of a ring and hold on for dear life as we raise a bungee cord attached to your feet. You guys are gonna need to ignore the pain and find your inner strength, because the first three guys and the first three girls that let go are gonna be sent home immediately. Guys, you're gonna be going first, are you ready?"

"Yeah," replied all of the guys.

The cameras were turned off while the boys were taken out to the structure to get ready for the game. They were taken out to the structure in small boats (the kind you might use to go fishing on a lake). As the safety crew was wrapping straps attached to a bungee cord around the boys' ankles, Kiley and the other girls sat on the beach with JD to watch. Once the boys were ready, the cameras came back on and it was time for the game.

Even though they were several yards out in the ocean, Kiley could tell how nervous the boys were just by their body language. They were almost vibrating with nervous energy; moving around, unable to be still as they were waiting for the game to start. JD started polling the girls for their opinions.

"Who do you think is guaranteed to stay?" JD asked.

"The yellow shorts guy, Jon," Sabrina replied, and all of the other girls agreed with her.

Christian, too, Kiley added in her head. She didn't know if this was just wishful thinking or if he really was going to stay, but Kiley really hoped he would.

"Ready, get set, go!" JD shouted, and the boys grabbed on to the metal rings.

They were quickly raised up by their feet and were basically having to just hang there. The girls were all cheering the boys on, hoping to encourage them.

"It looks so hard," Sabrina said to Kiley, "Now I'm really nervous; I didn't expect to have to do something like this in order to stay."

"I know what you mean," Kiley replied, "I'm scared, too."

"I hope Jon and Christian hang on," Sabrina continued, "I don't want either one of them to go home."

"Me neither," Kiley agreed, "But they look like they're doing pretty good out there."

Alejandro was the first one to show signs of fatigue, twisting around and shifting his hands. He almost fell twice, letting go with his right hand the second time. He was barely able to pull himself back up and hold on.

"Oh, man," Jonna exclaimed, "He looks like he's gonna fall!"

"Yeah, I don't think he's gonna be able to hang on much longer," Layla replied, "It looks like his arms are really hurting him."

Well, of course his arms are hurting him, Kiley thought, he's having to hang there by just holding on. All of their arms must feel like they're dying right now.

Despite Alejandro being the first person to almost fall, Shane was the first one to let go and was out of the game.

"Oh, and there goes Shane!" JD announced.

All of the girls gasped. Everyone seemed shocked and surprised that he was the first to let go. He had seemed to be a strong contender in the game. Even the two apparently weakest boys, Trevor and Skyler, had outlasted Shane.

Even though she didn't really know Shane that well, Kiley still felt bad for him. She couldn't imagine what it felt like to be the first one to let go. She didn't have too long to feel bad for Shane, however, as moments later, Ron was the second to fall.

Even though Kiley felt sad for Ron, she still felt some excitement. If Christian and Jon could just outlast one more boy, they'd be official players in the game.

"Do you think Christian and Jon can do it?" Kiley whispered to Sabrina.

"They might be able to," Sabrina murmured back, "They only have to outlast one more boy. Christian has barely even moved out there, everyone else is twisting around."

The girls continued cheering, the excitement level rising. They all wanted to see which boys would make it onto the show. Unfortunately for Alejandro, he would not be one of those boys. His arms finally gave out a few minutes after Ron fell and ended the mission.

Kiley was ecstatic; Christian and Jon were able to hang on, which was perfect. Now all she and Sabrina had to do was hold on and they would be able to form their two teams.

"Oh my God, they did it!" Kiley squealed to Sabrina, "Christian and Jon hung on, they made it!"

"I know!" Sabrina cheered back, "It's so awesome!"

As the boys swam back in, the girls all ran out to celebrate with them and congratulate them. They all felt bad about Shane, Ron, and Alejandro leaving and hugged the three of them to comfort them, letting them know that they would miss them.

Next, it was time for the girls to head out for their turn. The cameras went off as the girls were getting ready to get in the boats, just as they had done for the boys. Before Kiley could get in the boat, Christian stopped Kiley and pulled her aside.

"Hey, don't be nervous, it wasn't that bad," he reassured her quietly, "Just hold on and close your eyes. Don't move around a whole bunch, that'll make you lose your grip. Just keep your eyes closed and breathe; don't listen to anyone else. You'll do great, don't worry."

"I'm not worried, I know that I'm gonna be able to hang on," Kiley responded before smirking, "I have to hang on because I'm supposed to be your partner, right?"

They both laughed before Kiley got in the boat so she could go stand on the platform with the other girls. Despite what she told Christian, she was incredibly nervous. She had never wanted anything more in her life and she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to hang on.

The safety crew helped the girls climb onto the platform and then strapped the bungee cords around their ankles. Once they were ready, the game was on.

"Ready, get set, go!" JD shouted for the second time that day, and it began for the girls.

Kiley reached up and held on to the rings as tightly as she could as she felt her feet begin to rise. It was the strangest feeling; she felt as though she was being stretched out as far as her body could be stretched. Kiley hoped that the fact that she was so short didn't work against her, since she didn't have any slack at all. Her body was totally stretched out and she had to hold on extremely tight.

She heard the boys cheering for her and the other girls and she wished they would be quiet. It was hard for her to concentrate with all of their shouting. But then she remembered what Christian said; she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Surprisingly, this helped calm her nerves and allowed her to focus more.

After a few minutes, Kiley heard a splash and she knew this meant that someone had let go. She was tempted to open her eyes to see who it was, but she knew she would lose her concentration. Only two more girls needed to let go and then everything would be okay, she thought to herself. Her arms were beginning to burn from hanging on and her hands were aching, but she did her best to ignore the discomfort.

Only a few minutes after the first girl fell, Kiley heard the splash that signaled the second girl falling. Alright, only one more left, she thought as she took another deep breath. She was so close to making it on the show that she couldn't imagine going home now. Only one more left.

Some of the other girls were starting to cry out in desperation, begging the others to let go. Kiley tried to ignore them; if she listened, she might start to feel the pain as well. She was doing surprisingly well at ignoring the pain and focusing on hanging on.

Finally, after one last splash, it was over. Kiley opened her eyes once it finally sank in.

Oh my God, she thought, I actually made it! I'm not going home yet!

Once she looked over, she saw that Sabrina wasn't one of them. Kiley had made it onto the show with her three new best friends and she would get to stay for at least a few more days!

With a shriek, Kiley let go of the rings and swung down. Once she released her ankles from the bungee cord and fell in the water, she discovered that Lacey, Heather, and Cree had been the three girls who would be going home. She and the other girls swam to shore, where they said goodbye to the three girls. As the three walked back to the cabins to get their bags, Kiley couldn't help but feel sad for them. She couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for them to know that they were going home on the first day.

After saying goodbye to the eliminated girls, Kiley and Sabrina hugged each other.

"We made it!" Sabrina said happily.

"I know!" Kiley replied, "I can't believe it!"

Kiley was relieved that the girl she was closest to had made it onto the show because she really hadn't formed any other close friendships with any of the other girls. A few moments into their celebration, Kiley was pulled into another hug by Christian.

"See, I told you I would hang on," Kiley said as she hugged him back.

Christian smiled and replied jokingly, "Of course you did, I never doubted you!"

Kiley laughed as towels were handed out by the producers to help them dry off. Kiley wrapped her towel around her shoulders as they all moved to stand in front of JD.

"You fourteen are now our official Endurance players," he said as he started clapping, "Let's hear it for you guys, good job."

Everyone started clapping and cheering, happy to be official players and to be on the show.

"Way to go," JD congratulated, "But, as you've seen today, Endurance is no walk in the park. You may think that you have what it takes, but you guys should really ask yourselves, do I have the will and determination to make it all the way to the end? Tomorrow we're gonna choose partners, so I want you to take a good look around and find out a lot about each other. For instance, one of you has caught three hundred snakes in two days. One of you is a triplet. And one of you is the number four surfer in the United States Surf Confederation, while another one of you is the number five surfer." (**AN: I don't know if JD said "Surf Confederation" or "Surfing Federation." Either way, I couldn't find either one on the internet, so if anyone knows the real term for it, please let me know so I can make the change. Like I said before, I'm not an expert on surfing.) **

Kiley blushed and looked over at Christian, who grinned back at her. They both knew that Christian was the number four surfer and that Kiley was the number five.

"Any one of those people could your key to winning it all," JD continued, "Tonight, take a deep breath, you should all be very proud of yourselves. Have some fun, make sure you get a good night's rest, okay? It's gonna be a little hard out here, but tomorrow's gonna be another day where we're gonna test your endurance. Head on back to your bunks."

When they got back to the cabins, they saw that the six eliminated players were just getting ready to leave. Those who had already unpacked their bags had finished packing them, and they were now ready to go get on the boat to go home.

"I can't believe we're leaving already," Cree said sadly when the official contestants came to say goodbye.

"Me neither," agreed Alejandro, "I tried so hard to hang on."

"You hung on a long time, though," Lana said, trying to comfort him, "You almost let go a couple of times, but you were able to keep coming back."

"Well, I didn't hang on when it really counted," Alejandro countered, "None of us did."

"Maybe we should exchange emails and phone numbers," Jonna suggested, trying to change the subject, "That way we can all keep in touch."

"I brought a notebook," Kiley said, "Let me go get it so we can write down all of our numbers and emails."

Kiley ran into the girls' cabin and grabbed her notebook and pen out of her bag. She ran back out and gave each person a piece of paper. They took turns using the pen and wrote down their contact information. Once all of the pieces of paper were exchanged, the head producer came over to them.

"All right, kids, we need to get on the boat now," he told the six eliminated players, "We need to stop and pick up your parents, then we'll be returning to Dana Point. We need to leave now so we can get back before it gets dark."

The six eliminated players nodded their heads and the final farewells were said. As they were heading back down to the boat, the producer turned to the fourteen official players.

"We have dinner ready for you guys," he said as he pointed to a building several yards away, "Its set up in that building over there, which is where your meals will always be. Once you plate up, you can eat anywhere you wish."

The teens entered the building, where they saw several tables set up with food. Kiley grabbed a paper plate and started looking at what options she had. There was a pot of spaghetti, some hamburgers and hot dogs, a couple of pizzas, chips, drinks, and desserts. Kiley got some spaghetti, chips, a cookie, and a bottle of water.

They all gathered in the boys' cabin to eat dinner and talk. As they were eating, Jon finally asked one of the questions that they had all been wondering since they left the beach.

"Alright, who here caught three hundred snakes in two days?" he asked.

"That was me," Aaron replied with a shy laugh, "We have a ton of snakes up in the mountains of Montana."

"You couldn't pay me enough money to go near one snake, let alone two hundred," Layla said with a shudder.

"What kinds of snakes were they?" Jonna asked.

"All different kinds. A lot of them were rattle snakes, which was cool," Aaron told them, "We had this expert snake handler with us who had some anti-venom just in case we got bitten."

"And did you get bitten?" Jonna asked, her eyes widening as she chuckled nervously.

"No, thankfully," Aaron laughed, "My dad almost did, though. He didn't catch it right and it swung around and almost bit him. He dropped it and got away from it in time, but it was really scary."

"On a less poisonous note, who's the triplet?" Max asked.

"Me," replied Lana, "I have two sisters. I'm the middle triplet, Crissy is older and Brittney is younger." (**AN: I don't know if these are really her sisters' names, I just wanted to give them names in the story.)**

"What's it like being a triplet?" asked Chelsea.

"It's really fun," Lana said, "We've always done everything together, except for this show, obviously. But it can get kind of annoying sometimes. People never believe that we're triplets because we're not identical. It's always been hard to have to share everything, too. But otherwise, it's great. I always have someone there to talk to and hang out with."

The attention then shifted to Christian and Kiley.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that the two of you are the surfers?" Jon asked them.

"Yeah, I'm number five and he's number four," Kiley replied with a smile, "He's always been able to beat me in the competitions we've been in together."

"So you two knew each other before today?" Lana asked.

"Not really," Christian shook his head, "I knew who she was because I saw her at some of the competitions, but we never actually met until this morning."

"How could you not have known each other?" Skyler asked, "You guys are the same age and do a lot of surfing. Shouldn't you have met before?"

"We went to different schools," Kiley explained, "We just never really interacted with each other. I only remember him in passing at surfing events and stuff like that."

After finishing dinner, they decided to play SkipBo, which Kiley had brought with her. She had to teach several of them how to play, as they had never played before.

"Man, this game is harder than I thought it would be!" Jon exclaimed.

"No, it isn't," Kiley giggled, "Once you get it down, it's easy. I can't believe you've never played this game before."

"My family doesn't really play card games," Jon said, "We play board games."

"Don't worry, Jon," Jenna reassured him, "I've never played this game either."

"I can't imagine not playing card games growing up," Kiley said, shaking her head, "Friday night is game night at my house. My parents always let me invite friends over and we play card games and board games. It's always been a tradition for us."

After staying up and talking for another few hours, the girls decided to go over to their cabin so they could all get some sleep. Sabrina and Kiley headed to their top bunks, which were right next to each other. That's when Kiley remembered that she was going to have to sleep on a wooden board; none of the beds had mattresses. All they had were sleeping bags and pillows to sleep on. She sighed as she laid down, already dreading how she would feel when she woke up.

How wonderful, Kiley thought sarcastically as she lay there on her bunk, my back is going to feel so wonderful in the morning.


	4. Getting A Partner

**I will be using lines from the show, just so you know. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Endurance or anything to do with it, that right belongs to Discovery Kids and their company. I only own the OC.**

**Chapter Four: Getting a Partner**

When she woke up in the morning, Kiley realized that her prediction the previous night had come true: Her back was killing her! She had no idea how she was going to be able to move today, let alone compete in a mission. Sitting up on her bunk, Kiley groaned softly and stretched, trying to loosen up her stiff back muscles.

Maybe a nice, hot shower will help, Kiley thought, that might loosen things up. May as well take one now before the others wake up, sharing with 13 other people doesn't sound fun.

She grabbed her towel, shampoo, and hair dryer and walked over to the showers, where she saw that there were only two small shower stalls. After a few minutes of trying to get the water to warm up, Kiley realized it was pointless.

How wonderful, she thought in exasperation, no hot water. This day just keeps getting better and better. Everyone else is going to freak out when I tell them. Oh well, here goes nothing.

After taking one of the coldest showers of her life, Kiley was happy to find that she would be able to use a hairdryer, since the bathroom was one of the only places that had an outlet. Sure, she had gone around with wet hair on the beach after surfing, but she was a typical teenage girl who liked to blow dry her hair after taking a shower. When she was almost done drying her hair, the door opened to reveal Lana, who was coming to take her shower.

"There you are," Lana said, "I woke up and saw your bed was empty. I heard the hair dryer and figured it might be you in here."

Kiley turned off the hair dryer and replied, "Yep, I decided to come in here early and get in my shower before everyone else woke up. I didn't want to have to fight everyone for a shower."

"Good idea," Lana said, "I'm used to having to fight my sisters for the shower in the morning."

"I'm an only child, so I've never had to deal with that," Kiley said.

"You're lucky," Lana chuckled, "There's always a big fight over the bathroom at my house."

Kiley laughed before warning Lana by saying, "Just so you know, there's no hot water. Its ice cold."

"Really? That sucks," Lana groaned good-naturedly, "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem," Kiley replied, "Just wanted to save you some time. I wasted, like, five minutes for it to warm up. I felt like an idiot standing there for the water that was never going to get hot. It wasn't really that fun taking an ice shower. But it'll wake you up, that's for sure!"

They both laughed as Lana started getting ready for her shower and Kiley finished drying her hair. Kiley couldn't help but think about the partner selection that would be happening later on that day. Would she be able to be partners with Christian and would Sabrina and Jon be partners like they had planned? Kiley certainly hoped so; she didn't want to be partners with anyone except Christian. Jon wouldn't be a bad partner to have, but Christian seemed to be the one boy who Kiley connected with the best.

When she returned to the cabin, she discovered that the other girls were awake. Kiley broke the unfortunate shower news to them.

"There's no hot water in the showers," Kiley told them.

"What do you mean there's no hot water?" Sabrina asked with a look of panic.

"I mean that there's no hot water," Kiley repeated, "I waited for, like, 5 minutes for it to warm up and it didn't. You can ask Lana when she gets back if you don't believe me; she's taking a shower right now. I'll go see if the boys are up and tell them about the cold showers."

After much complaining and whining on the part of the girls, the boys decided they didn't want to take a shower in the actual showers. Oh no, they would much rather bathe in the ocean. This idea came from none other than Christian, who had convinced the other boys that the ocean was the best place to get clean.

"Why do you want to take a shower in the ocean?" Kiley asked him in disbelief.

"Because it can't be any colder than the showers that you and the other girls are using," Christian told her as if it was obvious, "Besides, the ocean works just as well as a normal shower. It's not every day that you get to take a shower in the ocean. You should try it tomorrow."

"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks," she laughed, "I'll keep my normal, cold shower and you can have your ocean."

"Your loss," Christian told her before turning and running into the ocean.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon, Sabrina and Kiley did each other's hair in French braids. Both girls were becoming closer friends, which was becoming apparent to the other players. Kiley felt that if the other players saw her friendship with Sabrina as some sort of a threat, they might try to split them up. The only way to guarantee that this didn't happen was if one of them won missions, which would ensure the safety of the other.

The teenagers were told to gather outside of the cabins to wait for JD, who would tell them about that day's mission. As they waited for him, they started talking about what they would be doing that day.

"How do you think we're gonna get partners?" Brandon asked.

"I don't know," Jonna shook her head, "But I hope we get to choose who we want. What if they just partner us together and we don't get who we want?"

"We'd have to just make do, I guess," Layla replied, "But I agree, I hope we get to choose our partners."

Right after she finished talking, they noticed JD approaching them. As soon as he got closer, the cameras were on and it was time to behave as though they weren't there. Kiley felt as if she would never get used to being on camera and having to ignore the camera at the same time. It still felt so weird. After a few moments, JD reached them and stood in front of them.

"Morning, guys," JD greeted them, earning a "Morning" back from the kids.

"Normally we wouldn't be meeting in the morning like this," he continued, "But today's kind of a big day. How did everybody sleep, first of all?"

Everyone pitched in about how hard it was to sleep on the beds and how cold it was. Kiley didn't mind it all that much; it would get really cold at night sometimes back home.

"And watching your friends leave yesterday wasn't easy either, was it?" JD asked.

"It was hard," Christian said, while everyone else nodded in agreement.

"It's a tough combination. Well, today is important because it's gonna determine your fate in this game and how long you're gonna last. That's because you're gonna be paired with teams. So, Kiley, who's the perfect partner for you?" JD asked as he turned to her.

Kiley tried to keep her face from turning red as she nodded and replied, "Probably Christian because we get along well and I can talk to him easily."

JD nodded before turning his attention to Jon, "Jon, have your eye set on a certain partner yet?"

"Yeah, Sabrina," Jon quickly replied, "She's got what it takes. She's got will power and determination and I think it will work out."

"You know in yesterday's game," JD said, "The person out there, as far as the girls go, who looked just severe and serious was Jenna."

Jenna laughed and acted as if she hadn't realized how "severe" she had looked.

"Jenna, do you have any idea of a partner you wanna be with?" JD asked.

Before she could respond, Trevor said that she would want to be partners with him.

"Why do you say that?" JD asked him.

"Because we're from Chicago," Jenna stated as if it was obvious.

"What makes Jenna such a good partner, Trevor?" JD asked.

"Well, pretty much, she's strong and I'm hoping that she's smart," Trevor said as everyone laughed.

"Well, guess what, guys, I've got a little surprise for you," JD said ominously, "You will not be choosing your own teammate. Another Endurance player is gonna do it for you."

Everyone groaned in disappointment as Kiley's stomach dropped; someone else was going to pick her partner for her? Even though she had just made it clear that she wanted Christian as a partner, someone might decide to put her with someone else.

"So who you're gonna be paired with will ultimately help or hinder your chance to win this game," JD continued, "So if I were you, I would start negotiating with your fellow players now. Let them know who you want to be partnered with. I'm gonna give you the whole morning to talk amongst yourselves. The partner game is gonna be played later this afternoon, so have a good morning and I'll see you over there, ok?"

As soon as he stood up and walked away, all of the players started groaning. Someone else was going to pick their partners for them. Sure, everyone knew that Kiley wanted to be with Christian and that Jon wanted to be with Sabrina, but what if someone else wanted them as their partners? This threw a major kink in the plan to have the four of them be partners, Kiley thought, what if they weren't able to all be paired together?

They gathered back into one of the cabins to discuss the whole partner situation. The cameras, of course, followed them. Some of the teens sat on the beds while the others stood next to them.

"So everyone say who their top two choices for a partner would be," Jonna suggested, "So that way we can start getting an idea of who will get partnered together."

That idea was almost immediately messed up when Jenna jokingly started pointing out each boy as someone she would want to be partners with.

"We need to take this seriously so no one gets partnered with someone they don't want to be with," Lana chastised.

"Exactly," Jonna agreed, "Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings, just be honest. It's better to be honest right now than to be put with someone you don't want. If we don't know who you don't want to be with and who you do want to be with, we won't know who to partner with each other."

When both Jon and Christian said that they would have Sabrina or Kiley, Layla piped up and said, "Not everyone can have Sabrina or Kiley, because they're only two people and they can't go to the entire group."

Kiley nodded in agreement; in all honesty, she really wanted Christian as a partner, but Jon wouldn't be such a bad partner, either. If she couldn't have Christian, then she would want Jon for a partner. So since those were the two boys who said that they would want to be partners with her, she agreed that she wouldn't want the rest of the boys to want to be partners with her.

As everyone started saying how they all wanted the same three people, Aaron noted, "This is starting to turn everyone against each other."

"It hasn't yet, but it will by the time the game comes around," Skyler replied.

After the meeting in the cabin, everyone went out on the beach. The cameras followed them, filming the teens as they broke off into smaller groups. Kiley, Sabrina, Jon, and Christian went a little way away from the others and the cameras to talk.

"What are we gonna do about the partner thing today?" Jon asked.

"I don't know," Kiley replied, "All the girls want to be with the two of you and all of the guys want to be with the two of us. They won't want to put us together, they'll want us to be their partners."

"We could talk to everyone and ask them to put us together," Christian suggested, "Maybe if we let them know that we really wanna be partners with each other, they'll put us together."

"But how are we going to convince them?" Jon asked, "We can't count on them putting us together just because they feel like it. Like Kiley said, they want us as their own partners."

"We can tell them that if they put us together and we win the missions, we won't send them to the Temple," Sabrina offered, "Even though we would send them if we have to, they don't need to know that. If they think we'll keep them safe, they might put us together."

"That could work," Kiley agreed, "We should at least give it a shot."

So the four of them went around to all of the other players and asked them if they would pair them with each other if they had the opportunity. They said that if they did, the four of them would protect them from the Temple. Surprisingly, everyone agreed. Even though this didn't guarantee that they wouldn't change their minds before the game, it helped Kiley relax. At least the other players were willing to put them together.

Suddenly, Jonna came up to Kiley with a strange question.

"Hey Kiley, can I borrow your pen and a piece of paper from your notebook?" Jonna asked.

"Sure," Kiley replied, "Why do you need them?"

"It's a surprised," Jonna said, "You'll see in a little while."

"Okay," Kiley said, "They're in my bag on my bed. You can go get them, just put them back when you're done."

A little while later, Kiley, Sabrina, Jon, and Christian were talking to some of the others down on the beach with a few of the others when Jonna came running up, announcing that she had completed a surprise for everyone. She was very excited and was waving around a sheet of paper from Kiley's notebook.

"I made a list!" Jonna exclaimed.

"A list for what?" Christian asked.

"A list for the partners! I wrote down who's with whom so no one gets confused about who's supposed to be partnered with whom," Jonna explained, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"Let me see," Kiley said excitedly as she held her hand out for the paper.

Jonna handed the list to Kiley, who started reading it quickly. As soon as Kiley saw that Jonna had succeeded in partnering up everyone with the person they wanted, she hugged Jonna.

"Oh my God, you did it!" Kiley squealed happily, "This is perfect, Jonna! Let's go show everyone else so they can memorize the partners."

"Let me see the paper," Christian said as he took it from Kiley and read it quickly, "Are you sure this'll work, Jonna?"

"Absolutely!" Jonna exclaimed, "As long as everyone sticks to the list when we play the partner game later, everyone should be partnered with someone they can work with. These pairs will work the best in the game."

"You're right," Sabrina agreed, "These pairs look really good. This is awesome, Jonna, I can't believe you were able to make this list! We should make sure that everyone memorizes it so no one messes it up later."

Kiley was excited; they had an official plan for the partner game! However, the main reason that Kiley was so excited was because Jonna had paired her with Christian and had paired up Jon and Sabrina. She went to the confessional booth to share her feelings about the list.

"I hope everyone sticks to the list during the game," Kiley said to the camera, "Jonna worked hard on it and did a really good job at pairing people up. I'm really glad that Jonna has me as Christian's partner on her list; I hope that at least that part goes according to plan. I am _so_ nervous about this game happening later on today. Hopefully, it goes as it's supposed to."

Of course, there were whispers of a few players who were considering messing up the list, but no one was coming forward to confirm this. Kiley had a feeling that this was true, which didn't help her nerves. All she could do was hope that those players didn't have a chance to wreck everything. The cameras continued to follow the players, capturing their feelings about the upcoming game.

A short time later, the head producer approached them with their instructions for the game and the cameras were turned off.

"Okay, everyone," he announced, "It's time for the partner selection mission. You need to walk down the beach and meet JD. When you get there, he'll explain the game to you."

The group made their way down the beach and approached JD. He was standing next to seven colored triangles in a line in the sand (grey, yellow, red, green, blue, purple, orange) and a huge metal structure.

"How're you doing?" JD asked as they walked up to him.

"Good," they all replied.

"Looks like it's time to find out who your partner's gonna be," he continued, "Here's how the game works. Over two thousand years ago, a philosopher named Socrates pondered this question: Is fate in your hands, or is it pre-determined? Some of you may have a very strong opinion once this game is over. Here's the deal, before you is this giant game called 'Fate Falls.' A ball will actually drop from the top, bouncing through all the obstructions as it makes its way all the way to the ground. Whoever catches the ball will pick any guy and any girl to be teamed together; you can't pick yourself. Once you have a partner, you're out of the game. Later, each team is gonna get the chance to pick one of those Pyramid Pieces. Remember, you gotta get all ten to win the game. The final two players here who prove that they have the most endurance, lasting to the end of this game, they're getting a reward; they're getting two pieces. Is everybody ready?"

"Yeah," they replied.

They all moved to stand beneath the structure. Kiley was nervous; she hoped that whoever caught the balls would stick to the list and give everyone the partners they wanted.

"Here comes the first one," JD announced as he pulled a rope on the side of the structure.

A yellow ball was released from the top and made its way down. Everyone started moving around, pushing each other, trying to be the one to get underneath it. When it finally became free from the metal structure and fell to the ground, they all dove. Everyone was scrambling over each other to try to get the ball. Kiley tried to get it and almost succeeded, but Jonna beat her to it.

"Jonna's got it," JD announced, "Everybody pile up in the middle; Jonna, come here."

When Jonna stood next to him, JD continued, "Jonna, nice job. You get to put the first team of Endurance together. Let's start with the guys; which one of the boys do you want to start with?'

"Jon," announced Jonna.

"Jon," confirmed JD, "Jon, stay right there, because the next move is you're gonna have to position Jon with a girl. Now, which one of the girls is it gonna be?"

"Sabrina," Jonna said.

"Thank you," Sabrina laughed with relief.

Kiley was glad that Sabrina and Jon got to be partners. She wasn't surprised that Jonna stuck to the list, considering she was the one who made it.

"You guys are the first team," JD said, "Come on over here, step in the yellow spot."

He handed the yellow ball to Sabrina as she and Jon went to step on the yellow triangle. Jonna hugged both of them before moving back over to the rest of the group.

"Alright," said JD, "Jonna looks like she's pretty tough out here. You guys should be standing where she's standing. Get into position; the next color is coming up."

He pulled another rope and the blue ball was released. As the ball bounced away, Kiley raced the other players and was able to grab it. She caught it; she couldn't believe that she managed to catch it this time! Kiley stood up and smiled as she thought about who she was going to choose to put on the blue team.

"Come on over here," JD told her, "Nice job. You ended up with it, which means you have a very important decision to make. Which one of the guys are you gonna select?"

"Aaron," Kiley answered immediately.

"Now for the big decision," JD said, "Who is gonna be Aaron's partner for the rest of this game?"

Remembering who was on the list as Aaron's partner, Kiley replied, "Jonna."

"Jonna and Aaron, you are the Blue team," JD announced, "Go ahead and step onto the blue spot."

Kiley headed back over to the rest of the group and breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was going great so far; two teams of people who had wanted to be partnered together. Now all that had to happen was for her and Christian to be paired together and everything would be perfect.

"We now have the first two teams of Endurance," said JD, "It's starting to get serious. Here we go."

The next ball to fall was the red ball. After a bit of struggling with Christian and Trevor, Layla ended up with it.

"Come on over here, Layla," JD said, "Layla beat out two guys for this thing. She's not giving up."

As Layla was walking over to stand by JD, Kiley and several of the other teens were whispering to her, trying to tell her who to pair up.

"As I'm pulling you over here, I'm hearing so many things being said to you," JD observed, "A lot of people trying to pull you in different directions. Alright, let's find out which way you're gonna go; this is for the Red Team. I want you to pick the guy who's gonna be on the Red Team; who's it gonna be?"

"Christian," Layla said after a moment of hesitation.

Kiley held her breath in anticipation. Christian got picked for the Red Team. With one word, Layla could either make her Christian's partner or completely crush her hopes. She was almost shaking as JD asked Layla who would be Christian's partner. As Layla hesitated, Kiley swore that she heard Sabrina whisper something to Layla. It sounded like Sabrina was telling Layla to choose Kiley.

After an agonizingly long wait (at least in Kiley's mind), Layla finally said, "Kiley."

Kiley breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't keep a smile off of her face; she had actually gotten Christian as a partner! JD handed Christian the ball as they walked over to the red triangle. Kiley felt as though she could relax for the first time since she got here as she had realized two of her goals. She made it through the right to stay mission and she managed to get the partner she wanted.

"This is so awesome, isn't it?" Kiley whispered to Christian, "We actually got each other as partners!"

"I know, right?" Christian whispered back with a huge grin.

The rest of the game seemed to go by in a blur for Kiley. The only thing that managed to stick out to her was when Max grabbed the green ball and messed up the list. He picked Trevor to be on the Green Team and, according to the list, he should have made Chelsea be his partner. But instead, he announced that Lana was going to be Trevor's partner. Everyone gasped in amazement and horror as soon as he said Lana's name.

"That wasn't on the list," Jonna said, sounding annoyed with what Max had done as Lana and Trevor walked over to the green triangle.

Kiley had a feeling that Max's move was intentional. Sure, he could have simply forgotten who was really supposed to be Trevor's partner, but Max had been one of the players who had expressed displeasure with the list earlier that day. This may have been Max's way of protesting the list and taking things into his own hands to mess with everyone's heads.

Jenna chose Layla and Brandon to be the Purple Team, Max chose Chelsea and Skyler for the Orange team, and Max and Jenna automatically became the Grey team. The Grey Team, since they were the last team created, earned two pieces for themselves.

After the teams were picked, JD told them, "Congratulations on becoming teams. I'll meet you later so you can pick your pieces and the trips you want."

They headed back to the cabins (followed by the cameras, of course, which were there to catch all of the drama) and began discussing what had happened during the mission. Lana was the one who was the most upset about who her partner was; she had wanted Brandon as a partner, not Trevor.

"Think about it," she told some of the other girls, "If I win, I have to go on a trip with this kid."

"Everything was going good until Max messed it up," Jonna said, "He and some of the other boys wanted to go against the list."

"If they weren't happy with it, why didn't they just come right out and say so?" Jenna asked, "Why go along with it until you have the opportunity to change it?"

"Probably because they thought we would take them out of the mission right away," Kiley said, "If Max had told us that he was thinking of not going by the list, the person who caught the first ball could have paired him up with someone right away. That way he wouldn't have been able to mess things up."

"Who was in on this whole thing anyway?" Jonna asked.

"Max, Aaron, Trevor, and Brandon," Lana replied, "Brandon mentioned it earlier. He said that the four of them were planning on changing the list."

"That's messed up," Kiley said, "They should have just said that they didn't like the list instead of creating all of this drama."

"Yeah," Jenna agreed, "But there's nothing we can do about it now, we're all stuck with the partners that we were given."

"Easy for you to say," Lana said sullenly, "All three of you got who you wanted. I'm stuck with the most annoying person here. I would have been happy with anyone else but him."

A few minutes later, the cameras were turned off and the head producer told the teens that he and the other producers had something they wanted to show them.

"If you'll follow me, we have a surprise for all of you," he said with a smile.

He led them to a small tent, where they found several tables covered with clothes.

"These are for you," the producer told them, "You can pick out as many articles of clothing from your team color as you want. The only requirement is that you get at least one shirt that has the show's logo on it. The clothes are yours, even when you leave the show; you get to take them home with you."

There was one table for each team, so each team headed to their table to pick out their clothes. Kiley and Sabrina, who loved getting new clothes, were in Heaven.

"Come on, Sabrina!" Kiley exclaimed, "Free clothes!"

They ran to the tables and started looking through the clothes together, as the red and yellow clothes were laid out next to each other.

Kiley couldn't believe how many different types of clothing were on the table. There were sweatshirts, t-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, tank tops, bandanas, pants, shorts, socks, shoes, and even hats and hair ties.

"Sabrina, look at these!" Kiley exclaimed, holding up some red shirts.

"Those would look so good on you," Sabrina said before holding up some yellow shirts, "These look just like them, we'll match! Oh, what about those hair ties, they look so cute!"

"Yeah, they are," Kiley agreed, "Oh, and look at that hat, isn't it awesome?!"

The teams picked out some of everything on the tables and went to try them on in the changing area. Kiley was so glad that most of the clothes were her size and she was able to have all of these cool clothes to represent her team color.

After they finished with their little shopping trip, the group headed back to the cabins with their new clothes. As they were walking, Kiley and Christian walked side by side so they could talk about which piece they wanted and what kinds of trips they might get to go on if they won.

"Which piece do you think we should get?" she asked.

"I like the picture on the Leadership piece," Christian said, "It looks like a crown."

"You want the Leadership piece just because it has a crown on it?" Kiley asked, shaking her head with a disbelieving laugh.

"Yeah, it looks cool," Christian replied, defending his reasoning, "Who doesn't like a crown?"

"Yeah, I guess it does look kinda cool," Kiley agreed, still laughing, "So what trips do you think we'll be able to go on?"

"I don't know," Christian said, "I hope they'll be someplace cool. Maybe we'll get to go to another country."

"Yeah, that'd be awesome," Kiley said with a smile, "I've always wanted to go to another country, I've never been anywhere before."

"You've never gone to another country before," Christian asked incredulously, "Seriously?"

"Nope," she replied, shaking her head, "I almost got to go to Mexico last year with my mom when she had to go to Baja for work, but I couldn't get the three days off from school because I had a big test in my math class on one of the days. I've been to almost all of the states, but never another country. Have you ever gone out of the country?"

"Yeah, I went to Australia last year for a family vacation," he said, "Just outside of Sydney."

"What was it like there?" she asked.

"It was totally awesome," Christian said, "We got to go to the Opera House, which is huge. We also got to go to a zoo and see all of the kangaroos and a bunch of other animals. The surfing there is totally awesome, it's like nothing I've ever done before."

"I bet it is," Kiley agreed, "I hope I get to surf there someday, it would be so much fun."

When they got back to the cabins, they started putting their clothes away. Well, everyone except the two messiest people there. Jonna and Jon were making their presence known in the cabins with their clothing and their other possessions.

"Geez, Jonna," Jenna laughed, "Do you have to get your stuff everywhere?"

"I don't mean to," Jonna said sheepishly, "I just don't want to have to search through my bags to find anything."

"Well, neither do we," Sabrina giggled, lightly teasing Jonna, "But you've managed to get your stuff all over the cabin and we've only been here one full day! How did you manage it?"

"I have no clue," Jonna said, "But at least I'm not as bad as Jon. I waited until today to unpack, he did it yesterday before we even knew if we were staying or leaving!"

The girls continued laughing, joking, and teasing each other until the head producer came in and asked them to change into their shirts with the show's logo on it.

"It's time for you to go meet JD," he said, "Once you get changed, head to your team colored poles with the boys. When you get there, you'll be picking your pieces and trips."

A few minutes later, the group found themselves in front of their team colored poles. The cameras were on, and JD started talking with them about the events of the day.

"Ok, here we go," JD said, "The seven teams of Endurance all decked out in their Endurance game shirts. Everybody pretty happy how this worked out?"

"Yeah," replied everyone, except for Lana.

"So Lana, who were you supposed to get according to Jonna's list?" asked JD, who had noticed Lana's disappointment and resentment about her partner both during the game and currently.

"Brandon," she replied.

"And yet, you're standing next to Trevor," he said, "Looks like some people decided to abandon the list. What happened?"

"Max messed it up," Trevor stated.

"So Max," JD said, "Buddy, you decided to go off the list."

"I didn't go off the list, I never got the final draft of the list," Max said defensively. "And what Trevor's excluding was when I didn't know who to pick for him because I was confused, he was pointing to Lana. He was like, 'Pick Lana for me,' so I did."

Yeah right, Kiley thought with a scoff, Jonna only made one draft of the list, which we made sure everyone saw and memorized. You just wanted to mess everything up!

"You know, this show is all about teamwork," JD said, "So you're really gonna find out how well you can work with someone whether they were supposed to be your partner or not. Now, before you are the ten pieces that make up the Pyramid of Endurance. You have to collect every piece in order to win the game. But keep in mind, the qualities written on these pieces are what it really takes to win. We're gonna start in the order the partners were picked. For the Yellow Team, we've got Sabrina and Jon; which one's gonna be your piece?"

"Perseverance," Sabrina replied.

JD took the Perseverance piece and handed it to Sabrina.

"Blue Team, Jonna and Aaron, which piece are you gonna go with," he asked.

"Courage," said Jonna, and JD handed her the piece.

"The Red Team, Kiley and Christian, which one looks good to you?" JD asked them.

"Leadership," Kiley replied.

"You guys think you're the team that's got the leadership, huh?" JD asked jokingly.

"We just like the picture," Christian laughed as JD handed them the piece.

Green Team chose Commitment, Purple chose Strength, Orange chose Luck, and Grey chose Heart and Trust, as they had stayed in the partner game the longest. That left Discipline and Knowledge left up for grabs.

"Alright, now that the pieces are out of the way, who wants to go on a grand prize trip?" JD asked, to which everybody raised their hands, "I had a feeling. Alright, it's gonna be one of seven awesome international expeditions."

JD started telling them the trips they could go on: Amazon, Galapagos, Bali/Komodo, Australia, African Safari, Belize, or Costa Rica.

"If a team who has the trip that you wanted gets eliminated," he explained, "You will have the opportunity to get their trip. Their trip and their pieces will be up for grabs in the following Endurance Mission. If you win the Endurance mission, you will inherit the eliminated team's pieces and have the option of swapping your trip for theirs. However, if you do not choose to take their trip, it will be taken out of the game forever. Now let's choose which trip you want to take."

Yellow Team chose Belize, and JD gave them a cool wooden carving to represent their trip. Blue chose the African Safari and were given a carving of a giraffe.

When asked what trip they wanted to go on, Christian replied, "The Amazon." JD handed him a long, thin wooden carving of a snake.

Green chose Australia and got a boomerang, Purple chose Costa Rica and got a carving of a large bird, Orange chose Bali/Komodo and got a sail boat, and Grey chose Galapagos and got a turtle.

"As you can see, there's only two pieces remaining," JD said, pointing to Discipline and Knowledge, "Those two pieces are up for grabs in the first Endurance mission tomorrow. You win those pieces, you take the lead; one step closer to having all ten pieces and going on one of those trips. To win this game, it's about teamwork. Take the time tonight to get to know your teammate; talk about the strategies, talk about how you're gonna win this game. Tomorrow, the game is on."

The cameras were turned off and it was time for dinner, which was the same as the night before. As they ate, each team sat apart from one another in order to talk to their partners. As Kiley looked around, she noticed that everyone was deep in conversation except for Green Team, which didn't surprise her at all.

"Look at Green Team," Kiley told Christian quietly, "They aren't talking at all."

"Of course they're not," Christian replied, "They don't like each other at all. I don't think they're gonna be able to work together very well in the missions."

"Do you think that'll make them an easy team to beat?" she asked.

"Maybe," he said, "I think Green, Orange, and Purple will be the least competition. Grey might be pretty strong, and Blue and Yellow will probably be the hardest to beat."

"Yeah," Kiley agreed, "Orange doesn't seem like they're very strong at all. Skyler and Chelsea are so small and don't seem to be very physical. But Brandon seems pretty strong, we just have to hope that Layla holds him back. At least we're already really close with Yellow, and Jonna and I have been getting along pretty well."

"I've gotten along pretty well with Aaron, too. We should try to get closer to Grey to make it so they won't want to send us to Temple," Christian said thoughtfully, "Max is pretty cool, he's really strong, too."

"Jenna also seems pretty strong," Kiley added, "Yeah, we need to work on building some kind of a relationship with those two. Especially since Grey has two pieces, they'll have a really big lead if they win tomorrow. But Max seems kind of sneaky, especially with what he did today with the partner selection. We'd need to be careful with any deals we make with him, he may turn on us. He seems to only be concerned with what could benefit him."

They continued talking strategy for a little while before the conversation turned to their personal lives.

"So, do you have any siblings?" Kiley asked.

"Yeah," Christian nodded, "Two older brothers. Andy's the oldest, he's 19. Then there's Kyle, he's 17. He's gonna be a junior this year; Andy just graduated. What about you?"

"I'm an only child," Kiley replied, "Are your brothers surfers, too?"

"Yeah, both of them are," he said, "Andy's trying to be a professional surfer right now. I think I might want to be one too after I graduate."

"Really?" Kiley asked in amazement, "Man, I knew you were serious about surfing, but I had no idea you wanted to do it professionally."

"Sure, why not?" Christian shrugged, "It's fun and I'm pretty successful at it already. I plan on going to college and getting a degree so I can have a back-up plan in case surfing doesn't work out. But I really want to do surfing as a profession rather than just as a hobby."

"I can't believe you have it all planned out already," Kiley said, impressed with his forward thinking, "You're only 15 and just about to start high school! All I know is that I want to go to college, I don't have my whole future planned out yet."

"Well, it's not much of a plan," he replied modestly, "I just figured it'd be good to have a plan to shoot for, you know? It's good to have options for what I want to do with my life. The sooner I figure it out, the sooner I can start working towards it."

"That's true," Kiley agreed, "Have you thought about what kind of a degree you want to get? I'm thinking maybe business or exercise science."

"I was thinking business, too," Christian said, "But who knows what'll happen, right? Like you said, I haven't even started high school yet, I've still got time to figure it out."

"What are you two beach gods talking about over here?" Jon joked as he and Sabrina came and sat with Kiley and Christian.

"Nothing much," Christian replied with a grin, "Just getting to know each other. We were talking earlier about who may or may not be a threat. What do you guys think?"

The two teams talked about the game for a little while before it was time for bed. Just as they were parting ways to go into their separate cabins to get some sleep, Christian stopped her by gently grabbing her arm.

"Hey Kiley," he said softly with a small smile, "I'm really glad that Layla put us on the same team. I know I said that I wanted either you or Sabrina for a partner, but I really only wanted you."

"I'm glad we're partners, too," she replied with a slight blush, "I meant what I told JD this morning, I wanted you as my partner because it's easy to talk to you. I don't think I would get along with anyone else this well."

"Well, goodnight," Christian said with his own face starting to redden, "See you in the morning."

"Yeah, see you in the morning," Kiley said in farewell. She fell asleep with a smile on her face, not even noticing how uncomfortable the bed was. Yes, Kiley though, it's a great thing that Layla put us on the same team.


End file.
